Hospice Foundation of America
E-Newsletter
Volume 5, Issue 11
November 2005
http://www.hospicefoundation.org
In this issue:
- Message from David Abrams, President
- Focus on: Holidays and Grief
- What's New @ HFA
- Pain Management at the End of Life
- FYI
- Site Coordinator's Corner
Message from David Abrams, President
HFA encourages everyone to join us in honoring and celebrating National Hospice Month and this unique system of medical care, caregiving and support. End-of-life issues are receiving more attention in the news, and more families are faced every day with making difficult choices around illness and loss. Whether you are a healthcare professional or an individual who has utilized hospice care, National Hospice Month provides a great opportunity to talk about its benefits and dispel some common misconceptions.
Although HFA's program offices are in Washington, our administrative office is located in Miami. That gives us a close-up look at the effects of large storms on health care providers, and we applied our experience and knowledge in 1992 to create When Major Disaster Strikes: Lessons From Hurricane Andrew. Last month Hurricane Wilma destroyed our offices, and this has served as a motivator for us to provide assistance to the hospice community in Louisiana and Mississippi. Hospice families and staff will have great need there for a long time to come.
Focus on: Holidays and Grief
The holiday season can present great challenges for those who are grieving. Paul Irion writes, "From the time we are little kids, holidays are high spots in the year. We anticipate them eagerly for days; we remember some of them for years. But when you are grieving, holidays are bitter-sweet. Anticipation is chilled with dread, excitement is dampened by listlessness."
While grief is a greatly individual process, an awareness of the difficulties that this time can bring may help people understand and accept their reactions. HFA has compiled advice from several experts in the field of grief and bereavement about this common concern.
Judy Tatelbaum, a psychotherapist and a frequent contributor to HFA's bereavement newsletter Journeys, offers survival strategies for bereaved persons facing the holidays. She stresses the importance of asking for support, and even the healing power that can come when helping others. She encourages those who are grieving to make choices about how to spend the holidays, even if that means avoiding traditional events or doing something new and different to celebrate.
Dr. Kenneth Doka, HFA's Senior Bereavement Consultant, suggests following The Three C's of Holiday Grief.
- Choose: We can decide what activities we wish to participate in, who we want to be with, what we want to do.
- Communicate: We can discuss our choices with others, especially those who are affected by them. They have needs as well.
- Compromise: When we communicate, we may find that our feelings and needs, the very ways that we cope, will differ. We need to find space to compromise.
Ms. Tatelbaum offers an encouraging reminder: "You will survive the holidays. You may hurt, but you will survive." This message of hope can be a vital one for those facing the dark journey of grief at a time when those around them are focused on the joys of the season.
For a more personal account of one woman's challenging and somewhat surprising experiences with grief during the holidays, read The Longest Night by freelance writer Elizabeth Halling.
We want to remind all our readers about the Journeys Holiday Issue. This special issue of HFA's bereavement newsletter is a nice way for you to let your clients, donors or others in your community know you're thinking about them during the holiday season. The 2006 Holiday Issue features two new articles: Holiday Survival Strategies, by Judy Tatelbaum and Home for the Holidays, by Paul Irion.
HFA's special Journeys issues regularly sell for 25 cents per copy. We're offering a special price of 20 cents per copy for orders of 25 or more of the Holiday Issue.
Orders at this special price must be received by 12/16/2005.
HFA President David Abrams and Vice President/Programs Amy Tucci accepted an International Health & Medical Media Award, also known as a FREDDIE, during an awards ceremony in New York City on November 4. HFA won in the category of Alzheimer's and Dementia for its 2004 Living with Grief: Alzheimer's Disease video (one-hour version). In the video, an expert panel, moderated by Cokie Roberts, discusses medical information about the diagnosis, progression and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. The panel also focuses on particular grief issues that families and patients face and examines the challenges facing policy advocates. Runner-up in the category was CNN Productions for a program on Alzheimer's disease.
HFA was also a FREDDIE finalist in two other categories – in the category of Coping, for the one-hour version of Living with Grief: Coping with Public Tragedy, and in Web Site category, for www.hospicefoundation.org. Now in its 31st year, the FREDDIE award was established bring together the fields of medical science, education and the arts for an international competition devoted to educational health and medical productions. The awards have come to be known as the Oscars of the health and medical community, and each year, the competition attracts documentaries, series, shorts, videos, Web sites, DVDs and CD-ROMs from around the world.
Pain Management at the End of Life
As part of HFA's Living With Grief® Series, HFA will publish a book on Pain Management at the End of Life: Bridging the Gap between Knowledge and Practice in conjunction with the 2006 teleconference. Edited by Dr. Kenneth J. Doka, the book will feature articles by prominent experts in the areas of the experience of pain; the assessment and management of pain; and societal issues in pain management and control.
"The Ethical Dimensions of Pain and Suffering," by Ben A. Rich, PhD, of the University of California, Davis School of Medicine, is a noteworthy chapter in HFA's forthcoming book. Rich considers the doctrine of double effect, and the highly charged issues of terminal sedation, total sedation, and conscious sedation. In addition to his academic position, Rich is editor of the Forensic Pain Medicine Section of the journal Pain Medicine, and a member of the Council of Ethics of the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the Ethics Committee of the American College of Legal Medicine.
If your organization has never hosted a site for HFA's award-winning teleconference, we encourage you to consider doing so this year. Past site coordinators have told us that, in their communities, the teleconference:
- Serves as a tool to increase awareness of your organization
- Offers an opportunity to build relationships with other caregivers, advocates, and community leaders
- Helps frontline healthworkers, family caregivers and advocates stay current on end-of-life topics
- Offers an opportunity for low-cost continuing education credit to nurses, social workers, physicians, funeral directors, counselors, clergy, EMS workers and others
Need more information about hosting a site for the teleconference? Check out the Frequently Asked Questions section.
November is an important time for communities to honor and support those who work in caregiving and end-of-life care. The publications and programs developed by HFA can help you educate your community about the broad range of services that hospice can offer. The suggestions below offer some easy ways to reach out to your community.
For additional information and ideas on National Hospice Month, visit the web site of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
To learn more about National Family Caregiver's Month, go to the web site of the National Family Caregiver's Association.
To understand more about the initiatives of National Alzheimer's Disease Month, check out the web site of The Alzheimer's Association.
Saturday, November 19 is the 7th Annual National Survivors of Suicide Day, sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Local conferences for survivors of suicide loss will take place in over 100 cities throughout the country; the program will also be broadcast live on the web, followed by a live online chat.
December 1 is World AIDS Day. Learn more about events on this day.
Registration is now available online for hosting a teleconference site! The site registration fee is only $20 for Site Coordinators who register before January 15th. And remember--Continuing Education Unit credits are available for a wide range of professionals for HFA’s teleconference. In order to take advantage of the continuing education component of this program, you must register your site with HFA.
New this year: Site Coordinators will receive a special electronic newsletter focusing on the 2006 teleconference. If you have registered for this year's teleconference and have not begun receiving yours, please contact Kristen Baker at kbaker@hospicefoundation.org
This newsletter is sent to more than 6,400 subscribers on the 2nd Wednesday of every month to keep you informed of what is happening in the fields of hospice, grief and bereavement, and caregiving.
Hospice Foundation of America is funded by contributions from individuals, corporations, associations and fraternal groups, as well as by grants from foundations and corporations. We are a qualified member of the Combined Federal Campaign, under the Health and Medical Research Charities of America federation. We encourage you to forward this e-newsletter to an interested colleague or friend. To subscribe, go to HFA's E-Newsletter sign-up page.
Privacy Statement: In no case will we share e-mail addresses. See the full text of HFA's Privacy Policy.
This newsletter is published by Hospice
Foundation of America
Jack D. Gordon, Chairman
David Abrams, President
http://www.hospicefoundation.org/
Board of Directors: Thomas E. Bryant, MD, JD; Myra
MacPherson; Priscilla Perry; Patricia Spulak; Thomas
Spulak
©
Hospice Foundation of America 2005
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